Family who fled Fort McMurray staying with relatives in Regina

A cooler full of frozen Pizza Pops and waffles, camping gear, two German Shepherds, three cats and crates of photos — with that divided between two vehicles, the Muirs arrived in Regina Thursday night after fleeing Fort McMurray.

And on Monday, Brenda and Jerry Muir enrolled their children, Brooklyn and Draven, at a south-end elementary school, where they start classes Tuesday.

“It feels good to be back here,” Brenda said Monday. “It’s my hometown. I’ve been at Fort McMurray for 10 years, but Regina will always have a special place in my heart because I was born and raised here.”

Brenda and Jerry graduated from the University of Regina in 2003.

Jerry — who grew up in Kennedy, southeast of Regina —earned a bachelor of applied science (engineering) degree and Brenda a bachelor of science majoring in chemistry in 2003.

The family is staying with her parents, Helen and Meron Lanoway.

The upside of the evacuation, Jerry said, is that the family will be able to spend time with Brenda’s folks and his dad.

Alberta has endured tough times lately, but Jerry is convinced the province and its people will rebound.

“We have a real strong community in Fort McMurray and the economic downfall that was endured the last few months, we’ve all battled through that and we will battle through the fire and we will get through it together,” he said.

“It takes everybody to help out — all the firefighters, we can’t thank them enough. They’re the ones that saved our town and probably saved our house.”

They’d worried fire would rip through their home that is surrounded by trees, but close to the water treatment plant, which Brenda believes firefighters fought hard to save.

Last Tuesday started clear enough that their children rode their bikes to school. But around 2 p.m., Jerry texted Brenda that his workplace, Syncrude Aurora, was being evacuated.

That caught Brenda by surprise. She turned on the radio and heard there was a voluntary evacuation in their area.

“I started packing necessities like sleeping bags, pillows, I took canned food out of our cupboards, I packed food out of our freezer — Pizza Pops, waffles — anything that I thought we could survive on for a few days because I didn’t know, at that point, what was going to happen,” Brenda said.

“And I included crates of photos I had organized a long time ago in case of an emergency — you just never know.”

Within 30 minutes of Jerry’s text, the evacuation had become mandatory.

Brenda grabbed the kids from school and they ran to their truck. At home, each family member filled a suitcase.

While she gathered pet supplies, Jerry loaded his truck with camping gear.

Police sent the family north. They ended up camping 50 kilometres north of Fort McMurray. By Wednesday morning, the valley was filling with smoke.

“My chest hurt in the morning when we woke up,” Brenda said.

The Muirs got in a long lineup at a nearby gas station. As they inched up to the pumps, only people with a fleet gas card could fill up.

Jerry’s truck was low on fuel so he phoned his co-workers to find gas. Brenda had enough fuel to drive 300 kilometres so the couple separated and Brenda headed south.

It was a scary and smoky drive.

“I told the children to get out the towels and we put them over our mouths to help us to breath … When you’re driving with heavy smoke in front of you, you don’t know what is ahead,” Brenda said. “You’re frightened. You’re scared.”

Nine-year-old Brooklyn was afraid to see what Fort McMurray would look like.

“When I went through the town, if I took the towel off of my mouth, I could smell instant smoke — it didn’t look good and it didn’t smell good,” she said.

Draven was struck by the charred trees.

“The trees had no needles on them, they were just basically big sticks standing up,” said the 11-year-old.

Brenda was shocked by the devastation.

“All of the beautiful trees that line the highway were burned — gone,” she said tearfully.

“When she told me that Jerry wasn’t with her, I was really worried,” Helen said. “I kept texting her. When she said they made it to Lac la Biche, I relaxed a bit. Words can’t describe what we all went through.”

Every night since then, Brenda has awoken to check Twitter updates from Fort McMurray.

“I’d check to see if our area was burning down. Would we have a place to live?”

Finally, on Sunday, Brenda and her mother got a full night’s sleep.

“I’m so happy they’re here — they can stay as long as they want to,” Helen said.

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